


you are my sweetest downfall (I loved you first)

by sagansjagger



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Acts Like a Cat, Adults, Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Identity Reveal, No Smut, Secret Crush, Secret Identity, Sloppy Makeouts, Sub Adrien Agreste, Sub Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, cat instincts sub Adrien Agreste
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:55:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25957870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagansjagger/pseuds/sagansjagger
Summary: Marinette had student loans, back pain, and no ability to drink anyone under the table anymore.She’d just returned from attending graduate school at the University of Milan. She’d been back in Paris for two weeks. She was just starting to get unpacked. And now this.An akuma.Again.Afterfifteenyears.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 37
Kudos: 254





	you are my sweetest downfall (I loved you first)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missnoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missnoodles/gifts).



> Happy birthday to my wonderful friend and beta reader, [Missnoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missnoodles/pseuds/Missnoodles)! Cat instincts sub Adrien Agreste is just for you. <3
> 
> Noodles is a fantastic author in her own right, with a gorgeous work called [our hands would not be taught to hold another's](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25014856/chapters/60572590), which takes a salt fic premise and turns it into something unique and beautiful. Go check her out!

After fifteen years, no one expected the akumas to start up again. 

Least of all Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

But as she watched Nadja Chamack’s camera crew on the screen follow the plant monster terrorizing Paris, Marinette came to the sinking realization that an akuma is exactly what it was.

She was needed again. She knew this.

But she was barely treading water as it was. Taking care of her career, housework, the hamster--to say nothing of her abysmal love life--took up all her attention and energy. Her new internship as an Associate Apparel Graphic and Textile Designer at Chanel ran her ragged. She ordered dinner practically every night. 

Marinette had student loans, back pain, and no ability to drink anyone under the table anymore.

She’d just returned from attending graduate school at the University of Milan. She’d been back in Paris for two weeks. She was just starting to get unpacked. And now this. 

An akuma. 

Again. 

After _fifteen_ years.

She’d thought she’d be safe to leave again in the fall, to pursue her dreams in the fashion industry. Apparently not.

Marinette buried her face in her hands and groaned.

“Tikki,” Marinette said to the little, red bug kwami hovering by her right shoulder. “Can’t someone else take on the mantle? Someone not thirty and not with a job and student loans?”

Tikki was quiet for a long time, so long that Marinette grew antsy. She didn’t turn to face her friend, but she felt those huge, indigo eyes boring a hole in her head. 

When Tikki spoke, her voice was without inflection, without judgement. “If you want to give the Ladybug miraculous up, then yes, someone else can take care of the problem.”

Faced with the horrible prospect of never seeing her precious friend again, Marinette caved. She swallowed thickly. “Tikki,” Marinette whispered, standing from the couch. “Spots on.”

The familiar transformation light--light Marinatte hadn’t seen or felt in over a decade and a half--washed over her, leaving her clad in a form-fitting, black-spotted, entirely-too-familiar supersuit. Her body felt stronger. Lighter. She knew she had more flexibility, more agility, and more stamina.

It felt, absurdly, like being fifteen again. “I could get used to this.”

Marinette examined the silver, hexagonal patterns on her arms, touched her mask with her gloved fingers, and glanced down at her bootless feet. 

She sighed. “Back to the footie pajamas, I see.”

The gentle pressure of the material felt like an embrace, a weighted blanket made just for her. 

It put Marinette’s mind at ease that Tikki would still be with her as she fought. 

Someone else would be, too, if she were lucky. A smile curved her lips. It had been ages since she’d last seen Chat. _I hope he’s still in Paris,_ she thought, unwinding her yo-yo from around her waist and heading to the nearest window. _I’m rusty. I’ll need him._

Throwing her bandalore out, she hoped she remembered how to sail across the streets of Paris. The magical yo-yo caught on a nearby spire, and she gave it a tug. Immediately, she was vaulted across the street.

She was _flying._ She’d forgotten how fun that was.

Ladybug--because that’s who she was again--let out an involuntary whoop. 

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

***

“No way,” Adrien said, his eyes wide as he stared at his television screen. He dropped his remote and touched his cheeks with trembling hands. Standing up from the couch in his loft, he giggled. “She’s back. She’s _back,_ Plagg.”

“Yeah,” Plagg said wearily. “And here I was used to the easy life.”

“Plagg, she’s back!”

“I heard you, Kid,” Plagg grumbled. He rubbed his temples with his flippers. “You don’t have to be so excited.”

“She needs our help, Plagg!” Adrien said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He thrust his ring hand out. “Claws out!”

“At least feed meeee--” Plagg called out as he was sucked into the ring.

Adrien spread his fingers over his face, delightedly giving himself a mask. He passed his hands over his head, donning the feline ears he’d missed so much. He arched his back, his tail popping into existence.

He even clawed at the air, finishing his transformation sequence. 

Abruptly, he felt ridiculous. _What am I doing?_ he thought, staring at his clawed fingers. _I’m not fifteen anymore._

But wearing the suit again, he _felt_ fifteen. Raw power surged through him; while he was in shape and muscular at thirty-one--having gotten back into a regular gym routine after a bad stint of depression from twenty to twenty-six--his strength was nothing compared to the supersuit’s. 

Chat brought his baton out from its place on his back and kissed it. “I’ve missed you, old friend.”

Cheerily facing his first fight in over a decade and half, he vaulted out of the floor-to-ceiling window. 

***

“Where are you, partner?” Ladybug murmured under her breath, dodging yet another shower of twigs. Over the course of the fight, she’d had to get used to spinning her yo-yo to make a shield like she used to. 

Unable to remember how to flip around like a grasshopper, she’d barely avoided a car thrown at her, had been struck in the belly by vines, and had her cheeks sliced by thorns. 

She was getting annoyed.

The akuma looked like something straight out of a comic book. He was a mass of swampy vines surrounding a person that had to be at least twelve feet tall. Ladybug was dwarfed by his height and nauseated by the stench of bog. Covered in patches of wispy, yellow moss and with dreadlocks made of wood, the man was a walking quagmire.

Vines had sprouted from the street, breaking up the asphalt and crawling over buildings to completely take them over. He seemed to be able to control them with a thought.

The akumatized object was unmistakably a blue watering can tangled up in the vines on his left side. He’d water the pavement and more would sprout up. Ladybug had backed off to recover her breath, but by the time she’d started to feel better, the akuma had surrounded himself with a veritable jungle’s worth of plants.

For now, he seemed content to spread more vines around the streets.

Kneeling on an as-of-yet-untouched rooftop, Ladybug eyed the akuma critically. She was debating leaping back into the fray when Chat finally showed his fuzzy butt. He landed on the rooftop nearby her, wearing a dopey grin and holding a bouquet of red roses in his hand.

“There you are,” Ladybug grumbled, standing so she could put her hands on her hips. “Those had better not be for me.”

“Of course they’re for you,” Chat said, taking a knee to present the flowers. His dopey grin became a brilliant, heart-melting smile--all soft, kissable lips and white teeth. His voice was unreasonably tender when he spoke his next words. “I’ve missed you.”

Ladybug refused to be won over by this Casanova. Even though her brain did file away that his shoulders and chest had grown broad and muscular, his legs were lithe and shapely, and his jaw was chiseled out of marble. 

She wondered how hard he worked out everyday. Ladybug could bounce a quarter off his abs, and the suit left nothing to the imagination.

Her mouth watered.

 _Wait a minute!_ Ladybug thought, shaking her head rapidly. _Am I really so desperate to think Chat Noir--of all people!--is hot?_

But Ladybug wasn’t the only one who’d been checking out their partner.

“Ladybug,” Chat breathed, his eyes wide. “You’ve got _curves_.”

Well, yes, she had curves. She apparently didn’t work out as much as he did, and with the onset of age twenty-eight, she’d started gaining a little bit of weight. She had bigger thighs and a bigger butt and bigger boobs, and even a tiny belly pooch. It’d been fifteen years since they’d seen each other; of course they’d both changed.

But her curves weren’t what was important.

"Were you held up by _flowers_ , Chat?” Ladybug said, pointing to the roses he still clutched in a clawed hand. “I appreciate the gesture, but next time, I'd rather have the gift of your assistance.”

“Sorry, Bug,” Chat said, lowering his gaze to the roof. “I missed you so much, and I… I thought they’d be nice, you know? You’re _back_ , and I got so excited when I saw you on television, and I just… I just…”

“Missed you, too,” Ladybug murmured. He looked up and beamed, his tail curling. 

_That’s a heartwarming sight._ She smiled a little. Then she snapped her gaze to the akuma. “So, this one’s a standard plant-based akuma. He controls the vines with a thought and grows more from the environment around him using the watering can. Not super dangerous, but definitely annoying.”

Chat stood and gently set the bouquet aside, leaning it against an air conditioning unit. “And he’s tall.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“C’mon, Bug,” Chat said, eyes glittering playfully. “Close combat for a taller person is more difficult because they have to make wider arcs to hit a shorter opponent. So while you were--I presume--attacking at range with your yo-yo, what you needed to do was close in and engage as a melee fighter.”

She stepped over to him and poked him in the chest. “That’s what I have you for, Kitty.”

His eyes narrowed with pleasure. “As the lady wishes.”

Marinette shivered. Since when had his voice deepened to something so… _sultry_? And the way he was looking at her… _Holy heck,_ she thought, drawing a breath through her nose to steady herself. _I can’t be wrapped up in inappropriate thoughts about my partner! We have an akuma to face._

She glanced away. “Okay, so…”

“Why haven’t you summoned your Lucky Charm yet, Ladybug?” Chat said curiously, his feline ears flicking. 

Ladybug blinked at him. “Because I didn’t want my timer to run out while I was waiting for you?” 

Chat gave her a very cat-like smile. “We’re adults now. No more timers.”

Ladybug bit her lip. “How can you be sure?”

Chat tilted his head. He crossed to the flowers and plucked one up. “Cataclysm.”

The flower instantly dissolved into an ash statue of itself, a counterfeit copy of its former glory. 

Ladybug waited. So did Chat.

His ring did not chirp. “Well,” he said cheerfully, and blew on the flower made of cinders, scattering it to the wind. “That’s good to know.”

Ladybug sighed. “I hope you have food for Plagg. He’ll probably be pissed if he has to cast multiple Cataclysms in a row.”

“I, uh,” Chat said, eyes widening. “Of course I do, hahaha! I never leave home without Camembert.”

Ladybug didn’t buy that for a second. She sighed. “We’ll just have to make sure we don’t call off our transformations until the akuma’s been defeated.”

“Wasn’t planning on it, Bugaboo.”

Ladybug side-eyed him and then threw her yo-yo into the air. “Lucky Charm!”

A red, black-spotted fire extinguisher fell into her hands. 

“Oh, good,” Chat said, grinning. “I was just getting all fired up.”

Ladybug gave him another side-eye. “I forgot about the puns.”

Chat gasped, placing a hand over his heart. “Say it isn’t so, my Lady! How could you forget the best part of me?”

“That’s not the best part of you, Chat,” Ladybug said, indulging in an eyeful of his biceps. 

He leaned in eagerly. “Then what is? Do tell.”

Smirking at him, she threw her yo-yo off the roof, fire extinguisher in hand, and _ziiiipped_ off to face the akuma.

She heard his shout. She didn’t have to glance over her shoulder to sense him following her into battle.

It felt right, having him here. She didn’t miss the threat of danger from akumas, but she had missed Chat. He darted left; she swung right. Taking down the akuma with Chat by her side was almost easy--or, at least, she had an easier time than she’d had before.

Fighting beside him, being in sync with their movements and words and thoughts--oh, how she’d missed him. She didn’t realize how much until she was rolling her eyes at his pun about “bloomin’ onions, blooming akumas!”

She blasted the akuma with the fire extinguisher, blinding him and slowing him down enough for Chat to sneak up on him and Cataclysm the watering can. It only took Chat one try; Ladybug didn’t need to summon another Lucky Charm.

She caught the akuma. “Bye, bye, little butterfly,” she said for posterity, and Chat beamed at her. Throwing her cure was magical. The ladybugs cleaned up the vines and restored everything to order. She’d forgotten how beautiful the miraculous swarm of bugs could be.

This fight was easy. Too easy, Ladybug thought, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She knew that without Chat, she wouldn’t have succeeded. She’d tried. But she’d needed her partner.

After Ladybug comforted the victim and sent him on his way, Chat took her hand. “Bug,” he said, his eyes shining. “Can we talk?”

Ladybug’s breath caught in her throat. His clawed fingers were so long and delicate; his hand was huge and easily encompassed her own. They fit together so well, she wondered if her hand would ever fit with another person’s again. 

“Sure,” she said, lightheaded from a lack of precious oxygen. “Meet me at the Tower?”

He released her and stepped back, and air rushed into the space he’d left. She tried to gulp down breaths surreptitiously; if he knew the effect he had on her, she’d never hear the end of it. She picked up the flowers.

Chat nodded and plucked his baton from his shapely back. He vaulted off towards the seventh arrondissement. Ladybug rubbed her cheeks and followed, her eyes trained on his glutes and his muscular shoulders as he bounced around Paris.

He was clearly enjoying himself, if the whooping was anything to go by. She shook her head, smiling. _Silly kitty._

Soon, though, dread curled in her belly. Marinette wondered what he wanted to say to her. She wondered if their relationship had changed. _Of course it has,_ she thought, worry curling her lip. _We’re adults now. We’ve both changed so much. There’s… There’s no way he still feels the same way… about me._

Did she want him to feel the same way he had about her? When they were fifteen, his crush was annoying at best, given that she’d been head over heels with Adrien. But she hadn’t thought about Adrien in literal years. They’d lost touch after lycee, when they’d both moved on to different universities.

 _Surely, Chat couldn’t…_ Ladybug thought, and suddenly she was climbing the Eiffel Tower, swinging her way up to the second-level maintenance platform. She landed with a thud and took in the view with a gasp. 

“I forgot,” she murmured, once Chat pulled up beside her, placing his baton on his back, “how beautiful the city looks like from up here.”

“There’s really nothing like it, is there?” Chat whispered, his voice soft and reverent. He was staring directly at her, and goosebumps sprouted all over her arms and legs under the suit.

She turned to face him, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. Her gaze flicked down to the roses she held and back up to his face. “You… wanted to talk?”

“Yeah,” Chat said, his gaze gentling. He cleared his throat. “How are the kwamis?”

That… was not what she expected him to say. “What?”

“You’re still the Guardian, right?” Chat said, his tail curling around his leg. “You still have the Miracle Box?” 

"Oh, yeah, uh,” Ladybug said, blinking at him. “The kwamis are good. Real good. I let them all out once in a while. They like bringing things like markers and stationery back to the box. It’s really weird what they collect.”

“I bet they miss Nooroo,” Chat said, feline ears drooping. Then he brightened again. “But now we have the chance to recover him!”

“Uh, yeah,” Ladybug said, rubbing her cheeks. Why was her face hot? Surely she couldn’t be that enamored with Chat’s smile. “If Hawkmoth is truly back, which I believe he is, it seems we’ll be, um, seeing a lot more of each other.”

Chat’s voice was deep and quiet, sending a secret thrill through her. “I’d like that, Ladybug. I’d really like that.”

Marinette bit her tongue. _Ugh,_ she thought, shaking her head. _It's like I'm a hormonal fifteen-year-old. I hate being fifteen again. I’m so, so tired._

“What did you want to talk about, Chat?”

“I…” Chat looked abashed. He smiled weakly. “I just wanted to catch up. I missed you a lot, Buginette, more than I can say.”

“Oh.” She desperately cast about for another topic. “So I notice neither of us changed our suits after all these years.”

“Right?” Chat said, chuckling. His low laugh was electric; Marinette tingled from her head to her toes. “You still look good, though. Very good.”

“Thanks,” Ladybug said, glancing over her red-suited body. “I forgot how much the suit supports my body. It’s better than the best bra I’ve ever owned.”

Chat groaned and held his head in his hand. “Did you have to draw attention to your boobs? I’ve been trying very hard not to look.”

Ladybug smiled. “Such a gentleman.”

He peeked through his fingers. “Yeah. I try.”

“I can’t believe I still don’t have boots.”

Chat blanched. He hesitated, kicking an imaginary rock. “Did you mean to say you don’t have a booty? Because I think yours is stunning.”

“Wow, Chat,” Ladybug said dryly, and pink dusted his cheeks under the mask.

Again, Marinette found herself stalled. Had they really changed so much that they couldn’t even maintain a conversation? She frowned, furrowing her brow. “Well, um,” she said, floundering. “This akuma was pretty easy, even with us being out of practice. The next few won’t be. I have a feeling Hawkmoth was testing us.”

Chat assumed a solemn expression. Ladybug appreciated that. Maybe getting older had changed him for the better, and he could actually take battle talk seriously. 

“I agree,” he said, nodding slowly. His eyes were a brilliant, inhuman green, piercing through her to her very soul. They narrowed sharply, the cat-like slits of pupils as dark as any black hole. “I think we need to be very, very careful in the next few weeks, my Lady.”

“Right? I can’t believe this,” she grumbled. “I’ve been back in Paris for fourteen days, and now this happens. Now I can’t… leave again.” 

Chat started. “You were gone? And you just got back? Two weeks ago?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, sighing. “Two weeks ago exactly.”

Chat stilled. “Can I ask where you were?”

“Of course not, Kitty. We have secret identities for a reason,” Ladybug said, pursing her lips. She decided to throw him a bone. “But I can tell you I was in grad school for fashion design.”

“Ohhh.” Chat’s brows rose. He looked like he was processing something. Then he beamed, and all traces of his somberness and startlement evaporated. “Can you believe it? Ladybug and Chat Noir, together again. It’s you and me against the world.”

Ladybug laughed. She couldn’t help it. His enthusiasm was infectious. She held her fist up. “Pound it?”

With a delighted smile and feline ears perking, Chat touched his gloved fist to hers. “Pound it.”

***

“Plagg,” Adrien said, hands trembling as they came up to cover his face. He’d dropped his transformation as soon as he’d arrived in his living room, quivering with excitement. “Did you know that Ladybug was Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

Plagg held up his flippers. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. How do you know that? Ladybug could be anyone.”

“Ladybug just got back from grad school for fashion design,” Adrien pointed out, and started counting off the similarities on his fingers. “They have the same color of hair. The same gorgeous, bluebell eyes. Marinette’s our everyday Ladybug for a reason; she’s always helping people. And she… posted on Facebook two weeks ago that she’d returned from the University of Milan for grad school in--wait for it--fashion design.”

“There’s literally a million women in France. She could be anyone.”

“Plagg,” Adrien said, breathing heavily. “Marinette knew all the temporary heroes. She knew all of them, Plagg. They were in our class.”

“Adrien,” Plagg said, waving his arms. “This whole thing smells like rotten cheese! You know you aren’t supposed to know each other’s secret identities!”

Adrien wilted. “Plagg, I… Things are different now. Right? We’re adults. We’re mature enough to handle that sort of thing. I think so, anyway.”

When Plagg didn’t say anything, Adrien crossed his arm over his chest and rubbed his elbow. “I missed Marinette. And Ladybug. I missed her so much. You know how much; I told you.” He swallowed thickly. “I couldn’t bear it if we lost touch again. And I’m just… so, so tired of not knowing her on both sides of the mask.”

Plagg sighed. “Just don’t get yourself killed chasing her.” 

***

The next few weeks were awful. Hawkmoth must have sensed that Marinette had a job, because he threw akumas at all hours of the day, all of them harder than the first one. She’d accrued vacation time in the past year, but found herself having to use all of it to cover for ducking out of shifts. 

She also had to start making excuses to Alya. She and Nino were planning their wedding, and while Marinette had been asked to be the maid of honor, she didn’t know how much time she could contribute to the planning anymore. She’d already had to sneak away from dress fittings, and hated herself for it. 

And, annoyingly, she wasn’t fifteen anymore. Tikki kept her put together while she was transformed, but afterwards Marinette was left sore and wheezing from all the backflips she did during akuma fights. She felt old down to her bones after every fight. Her feet hurt because there was no arch support in her stupid footie pajamas.

The one bright spot of resuming her double life was talking with Chat afterwards. After that first awkward meeting between them, they’d bonded over trash talking their supervisors at work. Chat told her how he’d stayed in shape: after a brief, depressing stint of having to learn how to cook and clean for himself after moving out of his father’s house, he got back into athletics. He ran marathons for charity and was in the best shape of his life.

She didn't want to admit to herself that she was slowly falling head over heels for her partner.

And then Adrien Agreste waltzed back into her life as if he owned it. 

He caught her on the first Monday in August just outside her office, while she was on her lunch break. “Marinette? Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” he said, flashing a brilliant smile with his bright, white teeth. His jaw was clean-shaven and well-defined, and he wore a fitted black T-shirt that left nothing to the imagination. “I was just in the area and saw a beautiful woman out here, and I thought that was you! How are you?”

“A-A-Adrien!” Marinette stammered, spilling some of her coffee onto the ground as she tried to shake his hand with her own being full of her phone and her beverage. “Hi! It’s… It’s been forever!”

His gaze on her softened, and she felt her cheeks grow impossibly hot. “How have you been?”

“Good I’ve been! Been I’ve good! I’ve been good!” Marinette said, earning another gorgeous smile from him.

“That’s good,” Adrien said, running his tongue over his lower lip and drawing her attention to how kissable he was. 

He stepped closer to her, and she caught a hint of his subtle cologne and… the scent of leather? His jeans clung to his sexy hips, and she caught a hint of his abs as his shirt rode up when he laced his fingers together above his head. It was almost like he was doing that on purpose. “I’m glad,” he said. “It’s… It’s so good to see you.”

Marinette felt magnetized. His pull on her was so strong, she realized only after she did it that she was leaning into his space, her mouth hovering near his. All she had to do to close the distance was crane her neck, and oh, how she wanted to...

 _Oh, my gosh,_ she thought, stymied. _I haven’t felt this way in so long, I didn’t think I still could. I thought I grew out of this._

She leaned back. She refused to give into this man’s charms.

“Y-You power no have over me, A-Adrien.” 

_Where did_ that _come from?_ Marinette thought, gasping. She didn’t think she’d ever been as flustered in her life. _I give speeches to rooms full of top fashion industry executives and yet Adrien Agreste makes me lose my cool?_

He tilted his head with a bewildered look, his hair catching the sunlight like spun gold. Then he grinned again, stopping her heart. “So, I was wondering… Do you want to get coffee sometime? Again, I mean, given that you already have coffee.”

The joke undid her. She’d go to the ends of the earth to see the way his grass-green eyes lit up when he smiled. The intensity of her feelings was terrifying; she hadn’t felt this strongly about anyone or anything in _years_. She was aggravated by her own attraction to him, feeling heat pool in her belly against her wishes.

But she was thirty now. Didn’t she deserve to feel things? Couldn’t she be a mature adult and go after the man she wanted? And what a man he was; handsome and charming and kind, drop-dead gorgeous and as gentle as she always knew he would be.

“This cup’s empty anyway,” she lied through her teeth, tossing the mostly-full coffee cup in the nearby trash can. “I’ve got some time! I’m on my lunch break.”

He offered his arm to her. “So there’s an excellent vegetarian café nearby, if you’re craving vegetables?” 

“Vegetables good sound,” Marinette said, and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he laughed. He had deep smile lines, which she appreciated more than she could say. The slight wrinkles on his forehead made him incredibly human to her. “So, um, uh, um, are you still modeling?”

“No, no, no,” Adrien said, leading her towards the café as if he were born to walk beside her. His pace was perfect, neither too fast nor too slow. He meandered down the sidewalk as if he didn’t have a care in the world. His confidence was ridiculously attractive, Marinette thought. “I quit as soon as I moved out of my father’s house. After a brief, depressing stint where I had to learn to cook and clean for myself, I started running marathons for charity.”

That… sounded suspiciously like what Chat had told her. In fact, it was almost exactly what Chat had told her, down to the phrasing. Marinette had been thirsting over one blond man earlier and now she’d been turned upside down by this one. _No way. He can’t be Chat._

They reached the café and Adrien held the door open for her. She smiled at him and entered, and he followed her inside. “T-Thanks, Adrien,” she said, after the hostess seated them. The restaurant was cute, decked out in a ridiculous amount of plants. “So what are you up to now? W-Where do you work?”

“I’m a physics teacher at a local high school,” Adrien said, accepting a menu from the waiter and thanking him. “I’m going to night school to earn a professorship at one of the local community colleges. And…”

Adrien hesitated, glancing over his menu at her. Curious, she waited. “And I’ve just come back to an old job I had. Once the akumas started up again, I just had to help.”

Marinette choked on her water. She coughed and sputtered. “You help with the akumas?”

“Are you okay?” Adrien said, reaching across the table to rub her back. She waved him off, so he continued. “Yeah, I do. It’s more of a volunteer position. But it’s a workout, and I’m not fifteen anymore.”

Marinette trembled in place. Adrien Agreste… was her partner? _Adrien Agreste_ \--an Adonis among men--was her pun-loving, inordinately caring, had-died-for-her Chat Noir?

Once she saw it, she couldn’t unsee it. Adrien’s shoulders were Chat’s. Adrien’s hair. Adrien’s smile. Adrien’s loyalty. Adrien’s kind and gentle and loving nature. 

All these features, all these personality traits, were unmistakably Chat’s. Marinette knew Chat better than she knew herself, or at least, she thought she did.

 _Of course he’s Chat Noir,_ she thought ruefully. _Of course he is._

Now she had to decide what to _do_ about that.

***

“Ladybug,” Chat said, his feline ears drooping as he landed on the second-floor platform of the Tower. It was the evening of his lunch with Marinette, and he'd been dreading telling her the truth all day. “I’m glad you called me for patrol. I have something to tell you.”

Ladybug was pacing. Her pigtails were in disarray, as if she’d been tugging on them. The silver, hexagonal patterns of her suit glowed in his night vision, glittering brightly in the low light. She stopped in the middle of her back-and-forth path, and whirled to face him, twisting her hands. “I have something to tell you, too.”

Chat bit his lip. “You go first.”

“No, you go first.”

They both drew a deep breath and spoke in unison. “Your identity’s been compromised.”

Chat stared at her. Ladybug stared back.

He let loose the breath he’d been holding and sucked down another one. “I know who you are,” he started, biting his lip. “At least, I think I do.”

Marinette pressed her hands to her cheeks. “This is a nightmare.”

Tears pricked Chat’s eyes. “Why? Is it really so bad that we know?” he said, and she looked away. He stepped into her space, and when she didn’t shy away, he cupped her chin in his hand to force her to look up at him. His words came out hushed, meek, deferential. “Is it really so bad, Bug? You’re the Guardian now, you make the rules.” 

“Chat…”

“I’m tired,” Chat said, letting her go. Ladybug didn’t back away, didn’t run. She stayed close enough for him to breathe her in, her chocolate-coffee scent filling his nose. “I’m so tired. I thought it would be easier to love you from a distance as an adult, but I… I just can’t anymore.”

“I…” Ladybug started, and he waited, trying to give her the space to find her words. She swallowed, and he wondered if there was a lump in her throat, too. “Y-You still love me?”

Adrien cupped her cheeks in his clawed hands and craned his neck, placing his mouth mere inches away from hers. “Marinette," he whispered. "I never stopped.”

Her eyes widened. Then she surged upward, smashing her lips against his. He tugged her forward by her face as she jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “Mmph,” Adrien said against her mouth, tasting her lips just as frantically as she did his, demolishing his willpower to do anything else. His eyelids slammed shut.

Her kiss destroyed him and built him back up again. He cradled her upper thighs, balancing her against him as she pressed her breasts against his chest. He was desperate for her; years and years of pining had built up into this moment, and the resulting explosion was messy and convoluted and incredibly hot.

Marinette’s mouth was wet and her moans were soft and her taste was _delicious_. She’d clearly brushed her teeth before patrol, and Adrien wondered if she’d been preparing for this moment. That just made him want her more. He ripped his lips away from hers and fastened them on her neck just above the black collar of her suit, making her throw her head back and hiss. 

Chat growled against her skin, dragging his tongue across the supersuit material. She didn’t have a lot of skin to suck above the collar, so he latched onto her earlobe instead. She fisted her hands in his hair, tugging on his wild mane and panting as he traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. 

As Ladybug jerked on his golden strands, Chat’s clawed fingers dug into the bottoms of her thighs, but her suit didn’t give. He gently bit her earlobe, sucking and releasing with a wet _pop_. He blew on the moistened skin, causing her to suck a breath over her teeth. 

Then she returned the favor. 

To his feline ear.

She closed her teeth around the leather and tugged, and his breath caught in his throat. His eyes shot open.

Chat’s instincts--instincts he hadn’t fought for fifteen years--screamed at him to submit. He was tempted to crouch low to the ground, but because he was holding her up, he couldn’t. So he hunched his shoulders instead.

Once she released his ear from the grip of her mouth, he lowered his head, flattening his feline ears sideways. He held his tail low, between his legs, thumping the ground with it. His jaw dropped half open, and he emitted a pitiful mewl of distress.

Ladybug leaned back, trying to catch his gaze, but he avoided eye contact. He wanted to set her down to lie on his back, belly up, as if his openness would be proof of compliance. 

Then she surprised him. Ladybug seized his cheeks and pressed a long, fantastically tender kiss to his lips. They'd kissed so feverishly before, Chat didn't know how that could be better. But this kiss was. Her leisurely pace comforted him, and rather than trying to devour her like he had been, he savored the contact.

Their frantic passion gave way to something gentle and sweet. This was the kind of kissing he’d wanted to give to Marinette, as Adrien. The kind of kissing he’d planned on seducing her with. He just didn’t expect her to want this, too. 

Using one hand to cup her hips, his other roamed her back, stroking the lean muscle through her suit and prompting delicate groans from her. He breathed through his nose, flicking his tongue against hers through her parted lips.

Ladybug closed her lips around his tongue and drew it into her mouth, sucking gently. Chat’s toes curled in his boots. Just when he couldn’t bear the pleasure anymore, she broke the kiss, leaning back in his hold and gasping for breath.

“A-Adrien,” she whispered, her hands sliding to his shoulders. “Is this okay? Do you want this?”

“Marinette.” Her name was a caress on his lips. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”

She laughed breathlessly. “I feel like we’re fifteen again.”

“Fifteen,” Chat murmured, giving her a look he knew was smoldering, “but with experience.”

“What is it that wise men say?” Ladybug said, offering him a crooked smile he couldn’t help but find endearing. “‘Only fools rush in’?” 

“Consider me a fool of the highest order,” Chat purred, rubbing his nose against her cheek and pressing a quick kiss to her wet ear, which made her gasp. “All for you, Marinette.”

“Marinette?” she said, staring at him with a gaze was proud to have blown. Then she gave him a slightly pained look. “Not just Ladybug?”

Adrien shook his head. “No,” he said, his tone utterly serious. “When I first saw you take down Hawkmoth, I told myself, ‘whoever she is under the mask, I love that girl.’” He stole a kiss from her lips. “I love all of you, Marinette. Ladybug. You’re the one I want.”

She beamed at him, her smile a sunbreak on a cloudy day. Then she bit her lower lip. “This… This is happening too fast, Adrien. Do you think we can take it a bit slower? I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship yet. I just got back to Paris.”

Adrien wilted. She tapped his nose. “But… that doesn’t mean I don’t love you, Kitty.”

He laughed. “Saying I love yous before we’re dating? I think we got this backwards.”

“You’ve always turned my world upside down, Adrien.”

Her words warmed him from the inside out. “Worth it.”

Marinette gave him a quizzical look, her bluebell eyes glowing green in his night vision. “What was?” 

“The wait. The fifteen year wait.”

Tears filled her eyes. “You really think so?”

“Absolutely,” Adrien said, pressing a clawed hand into her back, pulling her into an embrace. “I’d wait another fifteen years if it meant I could be yours.”

She sniffled. “Me, too, Adrien. Me, too.”

**Author's Note:**

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> 
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